Let Me Put My Suggestions In You: The Orphan Black Series

I think this suggestion is for all the ladies out there, though I could be wrong. It seemed like appropriate timing after the lead actress got what she deserved, an Emmy in a lead role for a drama. I recently checked out this series and am head over heels addicted, so even though it still hasn’t finished, I just had to tell you all about it, minor spoilers included if you continue.

The premise of the story starts with Sarah Manning, a dead-beat, runaway single mother dappling in drug dealing who is coming back in to town to steal her daughter away for good. But in the process she stumbles across her doppleganger committing suicide by jumping in front of an oncoming train. What quickly follows is her discovery of a group of clones that are all her “sisters”, a diabolical science fiction plot to create military weapons within people like her and other clones, and a serial killer clone trying to take them all out. Throughout the series she finds friends in strange places, learns more than she ever wanted to know about her past, and develops an incredible bond with all her sister clones and their family and friends. I haven’t gotten to the end myself yet, but that’s essentially a summary of the show.

So why do I love it so freaking much?!?! There are so many reasons. But Tatiana Maslany is the reason through and through. She is an epic actress, and excels at her multitude of characters. You can even tell when she is one clone pretending to be another.

Of all the characters that Tatiana Maslany plays, the main character Sarah is probably one of my least favorites. Her geeky scientist lesbian sister Cosima is super sexy, her soccer mom bitch and functional alcoholic Alison is just perfectly played, and her psychotic twin Helena completely grows on you more and more every season. She plays them better and better every season too, plus ends up getting new characters to play each season too.

The other characters are quite good too, with my absolute favorite being Felix Dawkins, who is Sarah’s foster brother and partner in crime to all the clones throughout the show. He is darling in so many ways, and just rocks the part. I wish he could be a part of my life, cause I know he would make it better. Check this compilation out of his most amazing one livers in season one. And even Donnie, Alison’s relatively loser-esque husband starts out obnoxious, and grows in to this incredible, supportive, hilarious person.

A recurring theme is the over arching conspiracy theory, so it is commonly hard to tell the difference between lover and villain to the various clones. That is of course on purpose, but even I found some of the end results surprising and heart wrenching.

In season three, when a whole new line of boy clones, brothers to the sisters, was revealed, I frankly thought it would plummet in to the long list of shows that craps out after the first two seasons, but I was wrong. They stuck with it, and did a good job. Sure, the actor playing the brothers is not nearly as talented as Tatiana, but the show didn’t suffer too bad.

While the science they explain in the show is vague, that’s probably for the best. Being a scientist myself I can say that they have never said something egregiously false, but instead have kept the lines blurred a little so in theory their science could be true.

The season finale will be airing in 2017, which saddens me a lot. I feel like I could go on watching it forever. But kudos to Tatiana for rocking so many different versions of herself as well as, if not better than, Olivia and Fauxlivia from Fringe. This show is the bomb, a swell mixture of science fiction, thriller, and just the right amount of comedy and love.